tnAchieves became a partner with the Tennessee Promise program (TN Promise) when it was signed into legislation in May of 2014. TN Promise is a last-dollar scholarship that covers tuition and fees for eligible students at community or technical colleges.

HC*EXCELL’s partnership with tnAchieves started when HC*EXCELL attended a meeting about the tnAchieves program. At that time tnAchieves was working with Knox County and bordering counties. HC*EXCELL asked if it would be possible for Hamblen County to be accepted into the program. Upon acceptance in 2012, HC*EXCELL convened Hamblen County stakeholders, WSCC, Citizen Tribune, Morristown TCAT, City of Morristown, Hamblen County Government, Jefferson Federal Foundation, and the Hamblen County School System to see if we could engage stakeholders in forming a coalition to host and support a tnAchieves program in Hamblen County. The above-mentioned stake holders agreed, and Hamblen County formed a partnership with tnAchieves. At that time, TCATs were not part of the tnAchieves program so the Hamblen County Partnership became one of the first tnAchieves program to include TCATs. Today all Tennessee TCATs participate in the tnAchieves program.

tnAchieves is TN Promise’s largest mentoring and partnering organization, providing mentors and support for students in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties.